8th Grade Teaching Materials for NGSS

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Element Dating Game

Over the past few days we have been studying Lewis Dot Structures, Ionic Bonding, and Covalent Bonding. To take it to the next level, we need to be able to look at two elements, draw their dot structures, and decide whether/how they would bond. It can be quite a task!

To practice this, we played a game called the Element Dating Game. First, a student was assigned an element (ex. Hydrogen), and then had to interview two other students (ex. Sulfur and Hydrogen) in order to figure out which he could bond with. By asking a series of questions, the first student was able to slowly narrow down his choices. At the end of the game he had to choose which other student he wanted to go out on a date with.

In the video above, Jack made the correct choice. Two hydrogens could indeed join together, sharing two electrons and forming a covalent bond. At the end of the game students had to draw a picture of the resulting molecule, like the one below.